Ash Wednesday

A Service of Worship Adapted from The Book
of Common Prayer

Prelude

[If possible, it is appropriate to have lights dimmed and mainly
candles used for illumination.]

Song

Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days*

Lord, who Throughout these forty days,
For us did fast and pray,
Teach us with you to mourn our sins,
And close by you to stay

As you with Satan did contend,
And did the vict'ry win,
O give us strength in you to fight,
In you to conquer sin.

As you did hunger and did thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and so to live,
By your most holy word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through your Passiontide,
Forevermore, in life and death,
O Lord, with us abide.

Abide with us, that when this life
Of suffering is past,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last.

*Traditional

Opening Prayer

Minister: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all

People: And also with you.

Minister: Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and
forgive the sins of all who repent. You are the source of all grace and
mercy. Create in us new and contrite hearts, that we who come to you in
penitence lamenting our failures and our sins, may receive from you
forgiveness, reconciliation, and transformation through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.

[Alternate Song: Today Your Mercy Calls Us]

Scripture of the Day

Old Testament: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Alternate: Amos 5.6--15

[Optional: Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Optional Alternate: James 4.1-10]

Minister or Reader: Please stand for the reading of
the Gospel.

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Alternate: Luke 18:9-14

Minister or Reader: This is the word of the Lord to you.

People: Thanks be to God.

Homily

Invitation to the Observance of Lent

Minister: Today we begin a spiritual journey that will span forty
days, from Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday before Resurrection Sunday.
In the early days of the Church, the season of Lent was a time of
preparation for new converts as they readied their hearts to enter into
Christian Baptism on Easter Sunday. Since these new members were to be
received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was
called to preparation. Also, this was the time when those who had been
separated from the Church because of explicit sin would prepare to
rejoin the community of Faith.

Today, the season of Lent is a time of prayer, fasting,
self-examination, and penitence for all Christians as we prepare to
celebrate Easter. Through this forty-day journey, we are reminded that
we are totally unworthy before God, that we have nothing with which we
can obtain salvation, and that our best efforts at being righteous fall
far short. This season reminds us how much we need grace in our lives in
order to live a transformed life that reflects God’s love. We are called
to renew our commitments and our faith as we continually acknowledge our
need of God’s transforming presence with us.

I invite you to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination
and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and
meditating on God's holy Word. To make a right beginning of repentance,
and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now invite God to examine our
hearts as we wait silently before him.

Action: A period of silence; in churches with prayer altars or
kneeling rails, worshippers may be invited to come forward and kneel at
this time; depending on how the following confessionals are done,
worshippers may need to bring their worship folders with them.

Imposition of Ashes

[Note: the Confession and Litany of Penitence can be used before
the Imposition of Ashes]

Action: If the following confessional prayers and litany of penitence
are to be spoken while kneeling at the prayer altar or kneeling rail,
worshippers need to bring their worship folders with them.

Minister: Almighty God, you have
created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be
to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that
it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life,
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Minister: People of God, come now in the spirit of penitence,
and receive on your head in ashes the sign of the cross, the symbol of
our mortality, a symbol of the cost of sin, and yet the sign of our
salvation and promise of eternal life.

Action:
The minister places ashes on the forehead of worshippers in the shape of
a cross; this can be done in silence or with the following words.
If two ministers are imposing ashes, they can alternate the following
phrases, without speaking at the same time.

Minister: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.

[Optional Action: Appropriate music, instrumental only, can be played
as ashes are received.]

Action: After imposition of ashes, worshippers kneel at the front. If
there is no prayer altar or kneeling rail, they may return to their
seats for meditation.

Litany of Penitence

Action: Depending on context, worshippers may remain kneeling at the
front, or kneel where they are seated.

Minister: We kneel before God as a sign of our humility and
submission to God.

Action: The minister and people all kneel.

All: Most holy and merciful God: We confess to you and to one
another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth,
that we lack any righteousness of our own, that we kneel before you
unworthy of your love. We have often failed to be your people, by our
own fault, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

Minister: We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and
strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not
forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

People: Have mercy on us, Lord.

Minister: Too often, we have been deaf to your call to serve, as
Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have
grieved your Holy Spirit.

People: Have mercy on us, Lord.

Minister: We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: our
pride, our hypocrisy, and the impatience of our lives,

People: We confess to you, Lord.

Minister: Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation
of other people,

People: We confess to you, Lord.

Minister: Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those
more fortunate than ourselves,

People: We confess to you, Lord.

Minister: Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our
dishonesty in daily life and work,

People: We confess to you, Lord.

Minister: Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to
bear witness to others the faith that is in us,

People: We confess to you, Lord.

Minister: Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done:
for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to
injustice and cruelty,

People: Accept our repentance, Lord.

Minister: For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward
our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who
differ from us,

People: Accept our repentance, Lord.

Minister: For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack
of concern for those who come after us,

People: Accept our repentance, Lord.

Minister: Restore us, O Lord, and let your anger depart from us;

People: Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.

Minister: Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,

People: That we may show forth your glory in the world.

Minister: By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,

People: Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Action: Minister, standing and facing the people:

Minister: The Lord is patient with us, not wanting any to
perish, but all to come to repentance [2 Peter 3:9]. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John
1:9] God so loved this world and this people that God sent
Christ to reconcile the world to himself. The Good News for you this day
is that God pardons those who truly repent and transforms those who
trust in God for salvation with sincere hearts. In the name of Jesus who is the Christ I proclaim
the forgiveness of sins to all who have drawn near to God in sincere
confession. Know that you are reconciled, accepted, and loved.

Minister: O God, we implore you to so fill us with your Holy Spirit,
that those things we do on this day may please you, and that the rest of
our life may be pure and holy, lived in the service of others, and that
at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.

Minister: Rise, people of God!

Action: The people all stand.

[Optional Song]

Ashes*

We rise again from ashes,
From the good we've failed to do.
We rise again from ashes,
To let you make us new.1
If all our world is ashes,
Then must our lives be true,
An offering of ashes,
An offering to you.

We offer you our failures,
We offer you attempts,
The gifts not fully given,
The dreams not fully dreamt,
Give our stumblings direction,
Give our visions wider view,
An offering of ashes,
An offering to you.

Then rise again from ashes,
Let healing come to pain,
Though Spring has turned to winter,
And sunshine turned to rain,
The rain we'll use for growing,
And create the world anew,
From an offering of ashes,
An offering to you.

Passing the Peace

Minister: Since we are reconciled to God and accepted into His
household, we have His peace as brothers and sisters in Christ. Offer
the Peace of Christ to one another as brothers and sisters. May the
peace of Christ be with you always.

People: And also with you.

Action: Greetings are exchanged.

[Optional: Offering and offertory]

[Optional Action: If an offering is taken, it is followed by the
Doxology]

Eucharist

Minister: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Minister: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Minister: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and
everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and
earth. We give you thanks because you have loved us and valued us even
though we are but dust. You have forgiven our sins, transformed us into
your people, and filled us with your Holy Spirit so that we may triumph
over evil and grow in grace, enabling us to live faithfully as your
redeemed and holy people. And so, with your people on earth and all the
company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

All (can be sung): Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the
highest.

Minister: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Your
Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release
to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you
would save your people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with
sinners.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave
birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and
made with us a new covenant by water and the spirit. When the Lord Jesus
ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word
and Holy Spirit.

Action: Minister takes the bread and lifts it up, breaking it while
saying:

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave
thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me."

Action: Minister takes the cup of wine and hold it up while
saying:

When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave
it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my
blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the
forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance
of me."

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we
offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living
sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the
mystery of faith.

People: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Minister: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these
gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of
Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his
blood. By your Spirit makes us one with Christ, one with each other, and
one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory
and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy
church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father now and forever.

All: Amen.

Invitation to the Table

Minister: All who would come to Christ are invited to come to His
table.

Action: Eucharist is offered.

Closing Eucharistic Prayer:

All: Lord Jesus Christ, you loved us while we were yet sinners,
and have called us to love others, to bring hope to a broken world.
Help us each day to be your people and to live lives of uncommon
faith and love. You are the Lord forevermore. Amen.

Scattering to Minister/Benediction

[Optional Song: Be Thou My Vision]

Minister: Go in peace, remembering that you are but dust and ashes
and unworthy of being called the people of God. But also remember that
you who were no people God by His love and grace has made a people,
children of his own household. Let us go forth in humility to be Christ
to the world.